Killing those end of summer blues

As we approach the end of summer and the beginning of the life of Windows 10, PC Perspective and Gigabyte (along with Thermaltake and Kingston) have teamed up to bring our readers a system build guide and giveaway that is sure to get your gears turning. If you think that an X99-based system with an 8-core Intel Extreme processor, SLI graphics, 480GB SSD and 32GB of memory sounds up your alley...pay attention.

Deep in thought...

Even with the dawn of Skylake nearly upon us, there is no debate that the Haswell-E platform will continue to be the basis of the enthusiasts dream system for a long time. Lower power consumption is great, but nothing is going to top 8-cores, 16-threads and all the PCI Express lanes you could need for expansion to faster storage and accessories. With that in mind Gigabyte has partnered with PC Perspective to showcase the power of X99 and what a builder today can expect when putting together a system with a fairly high budget, but with lofty goals in mind as well.

You have seen a lot of reviews from Lee covering Seasonic's PSUs over the years and you may have noticed that they often pick up Awards for their performance and warranties. Perhaps you have picked one up at some time, perhaps not but either way how would you feel about a chance to win one for free? Seasonic is holding a contest where one lucky winner could get a Seasonic Snow Silent 1050 similar to the one in this review. All you need to do is snap a creative or interesting picture of the Seasonic company logo or a Seasonic power supply and submit it to their contest page. You have until August 31st to enter, see if your photo can get the highest number of votes and win.

Earlier today we posted our review of the Seiki Pro SM40UNP monitor, a 40-in behemoth with a 4K resolution and 60 Hz refresh rate. Clearly this is not a monitor for mere mortals: you must have an impressive system to push out the pixels required for a 4K display and also have the desk space for a display that many would considerable sizeable for a TV!

Not only was Allyn impressed with the color capability of the display and the sheer size of the monitor, it offers some interesting features and capabilities including four simultaneous video inputs! Be sure you check out Allyn's full write up on the display that resulted in a Gold Award from the staff.

But let's get to the important news for this post: Seiki was willing to give us two of these monitors to hand out to our readers and viewers. That's right, two of you will be taking home a 40-in 4K 60 Hz monitor for your gaming PC! (Or for productivity and work, who are we to judge?)

The method is simple:

Fill out the entry form below. You can enter through one or all of the methods listed but the more entries you include the better your chances! Seiki is particular interested to see all the 4K-ready gaming rigs our readers have built!

It's stated in the Gleam form but it is worth reiterating here: all entrants will be sent one email from me (Ryan) with a coupon code for Seiki monitors that you can use on a purchase if you don't win one of the giveaways. You are not being signed up for some kind of mailing list or marketing list and your email address will never actually go to Seiki - I will send out the emails myself.

UPDATE: Did you miss the event? No worries, you can still learn all about the GTX 980 Ti, G-Sync changes and even how NVIDIA is changing VR! Once again, a HUGE thanks to NVIDIA and Tom Petersen for coming out to visit.

Even thought it's a week after official release, we are hosting a live stream from the PC Perspective offices with NVIDIA's Tom Petersen to discuss the new GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics card as well as the changes and updates the company has made to the G-Sync brand. Why would NVIDIA undercut the GTX TITAN X by such a wide margin? Are they worried about AMD's Fiji GPU? Now that we are seeing new form factors and screen types of G-Sync monitors, will prices come down? How does G-Sync for notebooks work without a module?

All of this information and more will be learned on Tuesday, June 9th.

And what's a live stream without a prize? One lucky live viewer will win an EVGA GeForce GTX GTX 980 Ti 6GB graphics card of their very own! That's right - all you have to do is tune in for the live stream Tuesday afternoon and you could win a 980 Ti!!

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti / G-Sync Live Stream and Giveaway

12pm PT / 3pm ET - June 9th

The event will take place Tuesday, June 9th at 12pm PT / 3pm ET at http://www.pcper.com/live. There you’ll be able to catch the live video stream as well as use our chat room to interact with the audience. To win the prize you will have to be watching the live stream, with exact details of the methodology for handing out the goods coming at the time of the event.

Tom has a history of being both informative and entertaining and these live streaming events are always full of fun and technical information that you can get literally nowhere else.

If you have questions, please leave them in the comments below and we'll look through them just before the start of the live stream. Of course you'll be able to tweet us questions @pcper and we'll be keeping an eye on the IRC chat as well for more inquiries. What do you want to know and hear from Tom or I?

So join us! Set your calendar for this coming Tuesday at 12pm PT / 3pm ET and be here at PC Perspective to catch it. If you are a forgetful type of person, sign up for the PC Perspective Live mailing list that we use exclusively to notify users of upcoming live streaming events including these types of specials and our regular live podcast. I promise, no spam will be had!

PC Perspective and Intel are partnering together to offer up a giveaway with some pretty impressive swag. Surely by now you have read all about the new Intel SSD 750 Series of products, a new class of solid state drive that combines four lanes of PCI Express 3.0 and a new protocol called NVM Express (NVMe) for impressive bandwidth throughput. In Allyn's review of the SSD in April he called it "the obvious choice for consumers who demand the most from their storage" and gave it a PC Perspective Editor's Choice Award!

Thanks to our friends at Intel we are going to be handing out a pair of the 400GB add-in card models to loyal PC Perspective readers and viewers. How can you enter? The rules are dead simple:

Fill out the contest entry form below to find multiple entry methods including reading our review, answering a question about Intel SSD 750 Series specs or following us on Twitter. You can fill out one or all of the methods - the more you do the better your chances!

Leave a comment on the news post below thanking Intel for sponsoring PC Perspective and for supplying this hardware for us to give to you!

This is a global contest - so feel free to enter from anywhere in the world!

Experience the future of storage performance for desktop client and workstation users with the Intel® SSD 750 Series. The Intel SSD 750 Series delivers uncompromised performance by utilizing NVM Express* over four lanes of PCIe* 3.0.

With both Add-in Card and 2.5-inch form factors, the Intel SSD 750 Series eases migration from SATA to PCIe 3.0 without power or thermal limitations on performance. The SSD can now deliver the ultimate in performance in a variety of system form factors and configurations.

UPDATE: Did you miss our live stream yesterday? Sorry to hear that! But the good news is that you can still watch the showcase and hear the questions (and answers) on the LogitechG product line. Enjoy!

If you haven't looked up what LogitechG has done lately, you are missing out on some of the most interesting and innovative gaming accessories in the market. My reconnection with the Logitech brand started in July of last year when they sent over the G402 Hyperion Fury gaming mouse, a device with a pair of sensors capable of tracking speeds as high as 28.4 mph - seriously!

Since then the team has been releasing new products and updated software that shows a dedication and drive to the enthusiast and gaming markets. The company's Intelligent Illumination system, that allows game developers to change the colors and brightness of the G910 Orion Spark based on what is happening in the game. Is your health critical? Then maybe you want the keyboard lights to pulse bright red? Or maybe when you jump into a flying vehicle you would like to illuminate the appropriate control keys? All of this is possible.

Besides the cool technology they have to show off, the truth is that Chris, the LogitechG peripheral guru that will be joining me, knows almost everything about keyboards and mice and headsets (oh my!). If you have a question about a specific LogitechG product, or about mice and keyboard technologies in general, this is the guy to ask and the outlet to do it.

LogitechG Showcase, Q&A and Giveaway!!

12pm PT / 3pm ET - May 27th

And of course, what would a live stream like this be without some giveaways? Logitech is going to supply hardware to give out during the live stream so you are going to want to be in attendance for sure! But to help build up some excitement, we are going to be giving away combinations of the G402 Hyperion Fury mouse and G440 mousing pad every weekday between now and the live stream! To sign up for the daily giveaways, use the form below. And for a chance to win a whole lot more gaming hardware, make sure you tune in on May 27th at 3pm ET / 12pm PT!!

I bet many of you are going to feel a little old as you read this, but ASUS is celebrating its 20th anniversary of being in the graphics card market! Starting in 1996, when ASUS launched its first discrete graphics product based on the S3 Virge/DX GPU and running through 2015 with the release of updated GTX 900-series and AMD Radeon 200-series cards, ASUS has been a pivotal part of the GPU landscape.

Seriously, won't SOMEONE please take this hardware from us? We are trying desperately to give it away...

Last month PC Perspective and Hardware Canucks partnered together to offer up a March / St. Patrick's Day themed giveawawy via YouTube. The problem? Only one of 15 people I contacted about winning replied - the rest were silent or replied and did not live in the US or Canada (one of the requirements). So to fix this, we are restarting the contest for the 2nd and 3rd prize winners.

Gigabyte will host the upcoming X99 Champion Challenge beginning May 1st on HWBOT.org, and the overclocking contest runs in six stages ending on May 31.

According to Gigabyte, "by participating, overclockers have the chance to win $2,800 USD in cash prizes and some exciting hardware, including the leader of them all, the X99-SOC Champion!" True to the name of the contest participants must use a Gigabyte X99 motherboard, and each stage offers a different challenge:

UPDATE 2: If you missed the live streaming event today, you can find the reply embedded directly below. You can't win any of the prizes at this point (sorry!) but there is a ton of information for you to gleam from the discussion. That includes a history of Intel's SSD technology, how flash works and what the new SSD 750 Series has to offer with PCIe and NVMe. Enjoy!

Intel SSD Live Stream and Giveaway

12pm PT / 3pm ET - April 2nd

Joining us for the live event will be Intel's Bryn Pilney and Kei Kobayashi, making a follow up appearance after jumping on stage with us at Quakecon 2014. During the event we'll discuss some of the history of Intel's move into the SSD market, how consumers benefit from Intel development and technology and a certain new product that will be making an appearnce on that same day.

And of course, what's a live stream event without some hardware to give away?!? Here's what we have on the docket for those that attend:

2 x Intel 180GB 530 Series SSDs

2 x Intel 480GB 730 Series SSDs

2 x Intel 400GB 750 Series SSDs

Huge thanks to Intel for supporting our viewers and readers with hardware to giveaway!

The event will take place Thursday, April 2nd at 3pm ET / 12pm PT at http://www.pcper.com/live. There you’ll be able to catch the live video stream as well as use our chat room to interact with the audience, asking questions for me and Intel to answer live. To win the prizes you will have to be watching the live stream, with exact details of the methodology for handing out the goods coming at the time of the event.

If you have questions, please leave them in the comments below and we'll look through them just before the start of the live stream. Of course you'll be able to tweet us questions @pcper and we'll be keeping an eye on the IRC chat as well for more inquiries. What do you want to know and hear from Intel?

So join us! Set your calendar for this coming Thursday at 3pm ET / 12pm PT and be here at PC Perspective to catch it. If you are a forgetful type of person, sign up for the PC Perspective Live mailing list that we use exclusively to notify users of upcoming live streaming events including these types of specials and our regular live podcast. I promise, no spam will be had!